I have always loved reading articles from papers local to the teams the 'Skins beat, so I am starting this thread again for this season. Sadly, we had to wait until week three, and the opponent was lowly Houston, but here is what the Houston Chronicle had to say about our victory:

Texans surrender without a fight

By JOHN McCLAINCopyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

On a day when they honored the military, the Texans were defenseless.

One of the worst defensive performances in the history of professional football in Houston was primarily responsible for a 31-15 loss to the Washington Redskins and a third consecutive embarrassing effort that saddled the Texans with an 0-3 record.

If surrendering 495 yards, including 234 rushing, weren't bad enough, the Texans allowed Mark Brunell to become the first quarterback in NFL history to complete 22 consecutive passes in one game.

"That was ugly today," coach Gary Kubiak said. "Some of the things that happened today are inexcusable, and I take full responsibility."

In their first season in defensive coordinator Richard Smith's 4-3, the Texans have become pushovers.

Brunell, 36, was being vilified in Washington for his role in the Redskins' 0-2 start. He should be glorified after picking apart the Texans by completing 24 of 27 passes for 261 yards and a touchdown.

"Right now, I'm embarrassed for myself, embarrassed for the city of Houston, not representing them better," defensive end Anthony Weaver said. "I know as a team, to a man, we're all embarrassed right now."

Easy pickings

Brunell's 88.8 completion percentage was achieved with a quick drop, a quick release and receivers who ran through the Texans' silk-curtain defense.

"That's disgusting," cornerback Dunta Robinson said. "What else can go wrong? If we don't play better, we're going to be the laughingstock of the NFL again."

In Kubiak's first season, the Texans are playing as if they want the first pick in the draft for the third time in six years.

The Texans started Sunday's game as if they were serious about winning. David Carr threw a 53-yard pass to Andre Johnson to the Washington 2 and hit Mark Bruener with a 2-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead.

Then the Texans allowed the Redskins to score 31 consecutive points.

"We didn't do anything after that," Kubiak said. "It's my responsibility to make sure we play for four quarters."

Sloppiness by offense

The Texans bumbled and stumbled on both sides of the ball. Carr and center Drew Hodgdon mishandled two snaps. Carr lost a fumble and threw his first interception — both in Washington territory.

It's too bad the Texans have to play the first three quarters. They've outscored opponents 29-19 in the fourth quarter. Carr has thrown four of his six touchdown passes in the fourth.

Indeed. The Texans allowed backup running back Ladell Betts to rush for 124 yards on 16 carries. Clinton Portis returned from a shoulder injury and carried 16 times for 86 yards and two touchdowns.

Portis, who made several terrific plays, may have damaged the Texans most on the Redskins' second series. After Washington went three-and-out on its first possession and fell behind 7-0, it faced third-and-6 at its 13.

From the shotgun, Brunell sent a shovel pass to Portis over the middle. He blew by the defensive players for a 74-yard gain. Two plays later, Betts tied it with a 9-yard touchdown run.

Brunell's 23-yard touchdown pass to Antwaan Randle El made it 14-7 early in the second quarter.

Just as they did while leading 7-0 in the opener against Philadelphia, the Texans allowed a touchdown right before halftime. This one came on a 30-yard run by Portis with one second left in the half.

"That drive at the end of the first half was like a dagger to the heart," safety C.C. Brown said.

The Redskins made it 28-7 with a 70-yard drive that took 8:28 of the third quarter. John Hall's 46-yard field goal left the Texans behind 31-7.

A brief comeback bid

But then there was some fourth-quarter excitement. Carr threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Owen Daniels. Ron Dayne ran for the two-point conversion that made it 31-15.

After Payne hit running back Rock Cartwright and forced a fumble, linebacker Shantee Orr picked the ball up and returned it for an apparent touchdown. But defensive tackle Thomas Johnson committed a boneheaded penalty that nullified it.

Although he was so far behind Orr he couldn't even be seen in the television replay, Johnson took a shot at Brunell, an automatic personal foul in that situation.

Five plays later, Carr was intercepted in the end zone.

"To step up early and then stumble and not make plays doesn't make sense," Kubiak said. "We didn't stop them all day. We have to take a look at what we're doing and who we're doing it with."

Brunell, 36, was being vilified in Washington for his role in the Redskins' 0-2 start. [b]He should be glorified after picking apart the Texans by completing 24 of 27 passes for 261 yards and a touchdown.

And here the Skins fan base finds itself on Monday morning attempting to say ANY good things about our QB. Go figure.

LANDOVER, Md. - The officials couldn't let it end without being absolutely sure. Not a slugfest like this one.With pandemonium breaking out after Santana Moss' 68-yard touchdown catch in overtime on Sunday, a metallic-tinged public address system voice echoed above a frenzied crowd's cheers at FedEx Field.

"We are reviewing the ruling on the field," the official said.

But a touchdown it was. And the Jaguars had dropped a 36-30 thriller that produced 788 yards of combined offense to the Redskins and quarterback Mark Brunell, the former Jaguars legend.

After a 2-0 start, the Jaguars fell to 2-2 heading into next week's game against the New York Jets at Alltel Stadium. Washington (2-2) has recovered from an 0-2 start.

"It was just an exciting way to end a football game," Brunell said.

On the fourth play of overtime, Brunell beat his former team by unloading a 68-yard bomb to Santana Moss, who ran past a Jags double team of Brian Williams and Deon Grant, to haul in the game-winning pass.

An official in the booth called for a replay to see if Moss had stepped out of bounds prior to the catch. The replay showed that Moss stayed in bounds and the touchdown ruling stood.

"I'm definitely disappointed," Grant said. "[Moss] gave them their first touchdown and their winning touchdown. We had double coverage. I give him credit."

Such a gut-twisting finish trumped stellar performances by receiver Reggie Williams (five catches, 93 yards, two touchdowns), and Leftwich, who rallied the Jaguars from a 10-point deficit in the second half by throwing a touchdown pass to Williams and leading the game-tying drive that sent the game into overtime.

The loss marked the first time since Sept. 10, 2000 that the Jaguars scored 30 or more points and lost.

"Going into the game, we knew it could end up being a shootout," Williams said. "They had one more bullet than us."

Brunell, who quarterbacked the Jaguars from 1995-2003 and still holds most of the team's passing records, threw for three touchdowns, and finished with 329 yards passing and a 117.2 rating. Leftwich, in his return to his Washington D.C. home, also passed for three touchdowns to go with a 103.2 passer rating and 289 yards.

Leftwich -despite suffering four sacks - also made the Redskins defense pay for blitzing by finding open receivers for touchdowns. Each of his three TDs came with Washington blitzing. He completed passes to seven different receivers, who combined to average 13.8 yards per catch.

Leftwich's 51-yard pass to Maurice Drew capped a four-play, 69-yard drive to give the Jaguars a 17-10 lead at halftime. The Redskins then scored 17 unanswered points - a John Hall 37-yard field goal, 1-yard Clinton Portis run and 8-yard pass from Brunell to Moss - to take a 10-point lead with 12:24 left to play.

Leftwich rallied the Jags back by hitting Williams for a 21-yard TD between two Redskins defenders. Josh Scobee kicked a 43-yard field goal to tie it at 27 with 2:17 remaining. Scobee and Hall then exchanged field goals to send it to overtime. Scobee's 41-yard kick tied the game at 30 with six seconds remaining.

"Losing any game hurts," Leftwich said. "It was special and historic for me personally since I was such a Redskins fan growing up. To be playing at home, I wanted this game a little more.

"Let's give the Redskins credit. They played a good game, were well-coached and made more plays when they needed to."

The teams combined for 30 points in each half, with the Redskins adding the winning six on Brunell's toss to Moss, who caught four passes for a game-high 138 yards.

Surprisingly, the Jags' defense allowed a 100-yard rusher for the first time in 13 outings, with Portis running for 112 yards on 27 attempts. Entering the contest, the Jags defense allowed an average of just 249.3 yards per game. They gave up 481 to the Redskins.

"Anytime that our offense scores 30 points, we're going to expect to win every game that we play," said Jags cornerback Rashean Mathis, who nabbed his 16th career interception in the first quarter.

LANDOVER, Md. - Sensing he could have a big day against the Jacksonville Jaguars' secondary, Santana Moss told quarterback Mark Brunell early in the game to "just throw the ball up" in the receiver's general direction.

"Not saying that I am going to come down with all of them, but just give me a chance," Moss said. "That's what Mark did."

Moss caught four passes Sunday and turned three of them into touchdowns, embarrassing any would-be tacklers who might be in the area. None was bigger than the 68-yard reception that gave the Washington Redskins a 36-30 win in overtime, with Moss getting in front of cornerback Brian Williams and snagging the ball just in time to get out of the way of late-charging safety Deon Grant.

"I attacked the ball and I saw him try to attack me," Moss said. "And he missed. The rest was a blur. All I could do was see myself running."

The touchdowns were for the first of the season for Moss, and they were just part of a display that coach Joe Gibbs was envisioning when he hired assistant coach Al Saunders to call the plays. Clinton Portis ran for 112 yards, Brunell threw for 329, the offense converted half of its third downs, and the line didn't allow a sack.

The performance gave the Redskins (2-2) leeway to utter a few I-told-you-so's as they rebounded to .500 after an 0-2 start. Last week's win over Houston produced a lot of yards - and Brunell set an NFL single-game record with 22 consecutive completions - but it came against a bad Texans defense and didn't do much to quiet the early-season doubters.

"I think it is a statement around the league. Jacksonville is one of the top defenses in the league," tackle Chris Samuels said. "They've been shutting people down, and nobody thought we could run on those guys. For us to go out there and put up what we put up, make plays all day throwing the ball, it says a lot."

In the locker room, the defensive players for the Jaguars (2-2) were stunned. They had allowed nearly as many yards rushing against the Redskins (152) as they had in their first three games combined (177). A 2-0 start has been wiped out.

"We didn't play good at all the whole game," Grant said. "They put up how many points? Thirty-something? They had 100 yards rushing, and I don't know how many yards they had passing, but we just didn't have a good game."

The loss spoiled a homecoming for Jaguars quarterback Byron Leftwich, who bought more than 90 tickets for family and friends for his first game in the area since his high school days growing up in Southeast Washington.

"It was historic for me because I was such a Redskins fan growing up," said Leftwich, who completed 21 of 35 passes for 289 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. "To be playing at home, that's a special feeling. I wanted this game more than any of them."

Leftwich led two fourth-quarter rallies, digging his team out of a 10-point hole with 12:24 remaining. Josh Scobee kicked a 43-yard field goal to tie the game with 6:40 remaining, and he tied it again with a 41-yarder with 6 seconds left in regulation.

"It was one of those nights where we did a lot of good things offensively," coach Jack Del Rio said. "We put up 30 points. You would think with our defense, that would be enough."

Meanwhile, Brunell did his best to suppress his feelings about playing his old team for the first time. The quarterback spent nine years in Jacksonville before he was replaced by Leftwich in 2003.

Coincidence or not, Brunell had his first 300-yard passing day in 15 games against his old colors.

"It was interesting," Brunell said. "I don't know if three were any emotions, but it was weird looking across and that that color jersey."

Notes:@ Jacksonville's Rashean Mathis picked off a flea flicker in the first quarter, his franchise-record 16th interception and fourth of the season. ... Washington DE Phillip Daniels got his first career interception, catching a pass tipped by CB Kenny Wright. ... Washington's John Hall kicked his 200th career field goal.

JPM36 wrote:I think a lot of Skins fans are waiting for him to have a good game against a good defense before showering him with praise.

It's funny how the "praise" this week for an awesome performance by Brunell is glaringly disproportionate to the amount of crap that was flung his way in the first two weeks. C'mon loser....er.....haters.... if the loser papers can give props, why can't y'all???

JPM36 wrote:I think a lot of Skins fans are waiting for him to have a good game against a good defense before showering him with praise.

It's funny how the "praise" this week for an awesome performance by Brunell is glaringly disproportionate to the amount of crap that was flung his way in the first two weeks. C'mon loser....er.....haters.... if the loser papers can give props, why can't y'all???

Or are you still working on the crow smorgasbord???

Redeemed I said a lot of Skins fans were waiting for a good performance against a good defense and I know I was right.

Yesterday Brunell delivered that very performance and I heaped praise on him at the game. He came through big time.

JPM36 wrote:I think a lot of Skins fans are waiting for him to have a good game against a good defense before showering him with praise.

It's funny how the "praise" this week for an awesome performance by Brunell is glaringly disproportionate to the amount of crap that was flung his way in the first two weeks. C'mon loser....er.....haters.... if the loser papers can give props, why can't y'all???

Or are you still working on the crow smorgasbord???

Redeemed I said a lot of Skins fans were waiting for a good performance against a good defense and I know I was right.

Yesterday Brunell delivered that very performance and I heaped praise on him at the game. He came through big time.

In the locker room, the defensive players for the Jaguars (2-2) were stunned. They had allowed nearly as many yards rushing against the Redskins (152) as they had in their first three games combined (177). A 2-0 start has been wiped out.

That is awesome!!!! And we basically called the same running plays over and over again!!! Hopefully we can do the same thing to the Giants next week!

Finally, another edition of the "Loser Papers". Personally, I couldn't be happier that this week's entry come to us from the Dallas Morning News.

Timeless loss: Cowboys fall to Redskins on final play

07:50 PM CST on Sunday, November 5, 2006

By TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News

LANDOVER, Md. – They walked off the field through the tunnel stunned. They sat at their lockers stunned. As they walked to the buses, they were still stunned.

"Just when you think you've seen everything there is to see," Cowboys linebacker Akin Ayodele said, shaking his head and then asking for a moment inside the quiet locker room.

The Cowboys' trip to the midway point of the season ended bizarrely Sunday at FedExField when Nick Novak slipped a career-long 47-yarder just inside the right upright with no time left – giving Washington an improbable and surreal 22-19 victory.

"We keep talking about how it's a long season, but we've played eight games and it's almost over," linebacker Bradie James said of the Cowboys' 4-4 record. "At some point we have to get over the hump as a team, and time is money. So we have to make it happen."

If the Cowboys fall short of the playoffs, they will look back at Sunday's loss as a killer.

Only moments before Novak's kick, the Cowboys thought they were going to leave with a season sweep of their rivals.

With 31 seconds to play, Novak missed a field goal try from 49 yards. Then Tony Romo, in only his second start as Cowboys quarterback, directed a four-play drive to the Washington 17. He connected on three of four passes, the last to Jason Witten, his roommate on road trips, for a 28-yard gain.

The Cowboys called their final timeout with six seconds to play and had Mike Vanderjagt, the most accurate kicker in NFL history, on the field for a 35-yard try.

"Everybody's excited," center Andre Gurode said. "We make the field goal, there's no time left on the clock."

Eleven times in his career, Vanderjagt had nailed a game-winner in the final 15 seconds or overtime. This would be his first with the Cowboys. L.P. Ladouceur's snap was perfect. Romo's hold was, too.

"Witt was talking before the kick," Washington safety Troy Vincent said. "He was happy. He just caught a big pass."

But Vincent, signed by the Redskins on Oct. 16 and added to the field goal block team Saturday, burst through Witten and Marc Colombo on the left side of the line and blocked Vanderjagt's attempt without breaking stride.

They can talk about the season-high 11 penalties for 153 yards, Terrell Owens' drop of what would have been a touchdown catch or Roy Williams' pass interference penalty, which ignited Washington's stagnant offense. But those were not the big plays, according to the Cowboys' coach.

"We had our chance to win the game right there," Bill Parcells said. "We just had to execute one play, and we didn't do it."

After the block, Redskins safety Sean Taylor scooped up the ball and was immediately walled off but reversed field. Guard Kyle Kosier got a hand on his face mask, but couldn't take him down. He was eventually stopped at the Dallas 44, and Washington got 15 yards closer on Kosier's penalty.

On came Novak for an untimed play, but only after Washington called a timeout. His bid from 49 yards had missed wide right. His try from 47 yards fluttered a bit but was good, setting off an electric celebration. The turn of events may have saved the Redskins' season and severely injured the Cowboys'.

"It was in our hands, and we couldn't take it," said Witten, whose arms were scraped and bloodied. "We let it go."

The Cowboys' record is one-game worse than at the midway point last season – when they failed to make the playoffs – so they cannot afford to let many more games (if any) go.

They are tied for second in the NFC East, two games behind the New York Giants, as they prepare for next Sunday's game at Arizona. That's followed by home games against Indianapolis and Tampa Bay (on Thanksgiving). As James said, time is running out.

"When you've got that much going for you and you screw it up like that," owner and general manager Jerry Jones said, "it's how you end up 4-4."

It was Christmas Eve 1995 when the Carolina Panthers began their mostly futile series against the Washington Redskins.

Bill Clinton was president. Norv Turner and Dom Capers were the game's coaches, Gus Frerotte and Kerry Collins the quarterbacks, Eddie Murray and John Kasay the kickers. RFK Stadium was the venue.

At the time, the federal government had temporarily closed up shop. That was why, after the Panthers lost, The Charlotte Observer's Christmas Day main headline on the sports section read "Federal Shutdown."

The expansion Panthers lost to Washington 20-17 just like they have lost five of the other six matchups between these two teams entering today's game.

Carolina has hardly ever gotten it right against Washington. Even the Panthers' one win against Washington, in 2003, was questionable. It looked to a lot of people as if Stephen Davis fumbled the ball just before scoring the game-winning touchdown.

The lesson from history: The Redskins can't be taken for granted by Carolina. Not even when Washington is 3-7. Not even when the Redskins' quarterback, Jason Campbell, is making only his second NFL start.

Washington is the one NFL team that can still split allegiances in the Carolinas. Thousands of older NFL fans around here, for lack of their own team, adopted the Redskins growing up and never shook the habit. Mention John Riggins or Sonny Jurgensen to these folks and they still get misty-eyed.

Carolina (6-4) is a better team than Washington. Joe Gibbs' team is a mess. The Panthers shut out St. Louis last week and appear to have their act partially together.

And yet I remember so many other times Panthers teams have failed in similar circumstances. In 1997, Carolina was coming off a berth in the NFC championship game and was a trendy Super Bowl choice. Washington's 24-10 win on opening day was a jolting uppercut, exposing the Panthers as average.

On other occasions, Carolina has also lost to Washington on one of running back Tshimanga Biakabutuka's best days as a Panther and on receiver Rod Gardner's best day as a Redskin.

Gardner sped through Carolina for 208 yards in 2001 -- still an all-time high against Carolina. When Gardner became a Panther a few years later, he could barely get on the field.

So beware, Panthers fans. Odd things happen when these teams get together.

One happened to me. On Christmas Day 1995, I flew back to Charlotte after that first-ever Carolina loss to Washington.

The rent-a-car place wasn't open yet when I left, so I dropped the keys at my hotel's front desk, with the clerk promising to hand the keys off to the man who would come to pick up the car from the rent-a-car site later that morning.

Instead, the clerk got off work a few minutes later and took my rented car on a joy ride to Philadelphia.

I spent much of Christmas Day that year on the phone, trying to straighten out another mess.

LANDOVER, Md. - Whenever things seem to be going well, coach John Fox tells his team it is only two games away from disaster.

The coach of the Carolina Panthers might have sold the cliché a game short. If what happened at FedEx Field on Sunday wasn't a disaster, it was very close. A two-game winning streak, the NFC South lead and what appeared to be a wide-open door to a deep playoff run seemed to disappear in one game.

The offense was dismal, and a defense that had played so well the past two weeks collapsed when it mattered most.

The Washington Redskins, with quarterback Jason Campbell making his second career start and a defense ranked 30th entering the game, defeated the Panthers 17-13 in front of a crowd of 85,450.

That led to a gloomy postgame locker room for Carolina, where many players were at a loss for words. Cornerback Chris Gamble, who missed a critical tackle, was gone before the media entered. Even defensive end Mike Rucker, usually one of the team's most eloquent speakers, took a deep breath, paused a few seconds and stammered a bit before summarizing the day.

"It hurts, because there were opportunities to get in the game and win the game, and we didn't capitalize on those for whatever reason," he said.

No missed opportunity was bigger than a 66-yard touchdown pass from Campbell to tight end Chris ey, who escaped tackle attempts by Gamble and safety Mike Minter and outraced cornerback Richard Marshall to the end zone to put the Redskins ahead for good with 4 minutes, 26 seconds left.

The play came on a short pass where ey got separation from Gamble. He made the catch and a diving Gamble was unable to bring ey down as he headed for the left sideline. Minter then had an open shot at ey, who bounced away and kept his balance.

"It was just man-to-man (coverage)," Minter said. "He beat his guy. I was coming from the middle of the field. I'm the second guy that had a chance to get him and I should have got him. ... It should have been done right there."

Instead, the Panthers were done a little bit later when the offense couldn't convert on a fourth down on one drive and quarterback Jake Delhomme threw an interception on another.

That dropped the Panthers to 6-5 -- a game behind the New Orleans Saints, who defeated Atlanta on Sunday -- in the NFC South standings. It also halted the momentum from the past two weeks.

A defense that was dominant in last week's shutout against St. Louis, allowed the Redskins to run for 143 yards and Campbell to throw for two touchdowns. An offense that ran for a franchise-record 242 yards in the victory against St. Louis, struggled most of the day.

The Panthers were forced to punt eight times and finished with 264 yards of total offense. Rookie DeAngelo Williams started in place of injured running back DeShaun Foster and gained 63 yards on 17 carries. Receiver Steve Smith, covered by cornerback Shawn Springs with a lot of safety help, was held to five catches for 34 yards.

Delhomme threw for 44 yards and the first half and finished with 23 completions on 38 attempts for 168 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions.

"I wouldn't use the word devastating because there's still a long season left to play," Delhomme said. "But it certainly wasn't a good loss."

The season is getting shorter and the Panthers no longer are in control of their own destiny in their division.

"The game was winnable," Rucker said. Especially considering the Redskins entered with a 3-7 record.

"Coach warned us all week that these guys play well at home," Minter said.

Fox might want to use that same warning and make it a lot stronger as the Panthers prepare for another road game against a mediocre NFC East team that has just switched quarterbacks. The Panthers travel to Philadelphia on Dec. 4 for a Monday night game against the Eagles.

If losing to Washington wasn't disastrous, following it up with a similar performance in Philadelphia could be devastating for a team that began the season as a popular Super Bowl pick.